Tuesday, May 29, 2007

If you are the person i think you are, then start a new blog with a different address and mail all our little blogging group of friends with the new address.

We won't put a link on our blogs in case "she" tries to get to it through us, but we can all save the new address to our favourites so we can look it up each day.

If you're leaving anyway, it doesn't matter I guess.

I think the said person who's asking you to censor yourself is very manipulative, insecure, immature and downright un-christian. Yes, it's right I don't know her, but that's the impression she is giving me from what she's asking of you. As the saying goes she needs to just "build a bridge and get over it". ;)

There, i feel better now!

As a very wise person once told me "being offended" is a choice. A person who is offended usually is because they think their opinion on things is the right one, and everyone else is wrong. that therefore means arrogance can be added to the list of negative qualities this person is displaying!!

Anyway, I can sum up my advice in a few words: tell her to get a life!!

No, I javen't been arrested, stuck in a plug socket, or had to pay a fine!

What I'm referring to via my title is the fact we had a THUNDERSTORM here last night!!! :p

I love thunderstorms!!

I was woken at 5:30 this morning with a VERY loud thunderclap right above our house!! I subsequently got back to sleep, but woke up this morning feeling in a very strange mood, and sensing the charged nature of the air, filled with endless possibilities for today.

It's quite dull outside, and has been rainging heavily, so I think we'll probably have more of the same later!!

If I was to have a superhero name in work, it would be "The Grid", mainly because I attract static wherever I am in work, and am frequently giving people electric shocks when they come into contact with me!!

Part of my uniform would be rubber gloves that I would take off when fighting super villains, and my catchphrase would be "the gloves are off!!"

Well, I can catergorically state that I am the King of writing with no apparent purpose in mind. For many, many years I have in fact been writing blogs, notes, exams papers and minutes that have no reason for their existence, apart from the simple fact that they are expressions of my highly creative, bored and fertile imagination.

Writing without seeming to ramble I must say is definitely an art, and one that should be celebrated and cultivated in the young, from the time they can pick up either a pen or a keyboard or a pencil. I am convinced that most politicians are in fact experts at this, so much so that I think they have been secretly trained by a lesser known branch of MI5 in "avoidance techniques" and "diversion tactics" but on a verbal level as well as a literary one.

If you observe most of them, they have a canny ability to complete avoid the question they are asked whilst giving you the impression they are answering it, whilst also simultaneously manipulating wither the interviewer or the question asked to raise a completely different point that more adequately fits their agenda!!

Sometimes, though not as often, you find some church leaders doing this as well, and also senior management in most businesses across the land. these people are all experts in deflecting questions they don't want to answer and also stating the blooming obvious in a way that sounds ultra intelligent.

I think that these are definite skills to be learned, and they also double as valuable verbal ammunition when you want to really annoy an interviewer or someone you really don't like!!

Ok, this post will mostly be written in the form of a story, but these are actual events that have happenned in my life, just to make that clear!! I am attempting to show you just how crazy and nuts I actually am. The reason for this post is because margo posted something about the fact that she worries constantly, and it got me to thinking...

Location: In a shop, browsing.

Participants: shop sales assistant, and Jm

Jm walks into the shop, and doesn't have the slightest idea what he wants. He's literally killing time and so wanders round aimlessly for five minutes, randomly picking cd's up and looking at them. Out of the corner of his eye, he sees a shop assistant putting stock out very near to him.

(thought in Jm's head) i wonder if I look suspicious because I've been walking round looking at stuff and not buying? (looks quickly over to assistant) nah, it's ok, I don't think he's looki.... Oh! crap! he just looked at me when I looked at him!! What do I do now? he'll think I'm a kleptomaniac or something because I looked over to see where he was!! Hmmmm... i know! I'll just pretend to look at another cd while he walks past, then it'll be fine...

(assitant walks past oblivious to Jm, putting out stock, while Jm randomly picks up "The Greatest Gay Hits of 1990" or some other such highly embarassing cd)

(thought in Jm's head) Oh noooo!!! (physically flinches) I hope he didn't see me then. (takes a quick glance and immediately the shop assitant looks up again at the same moment and eyes meet)

It has come to my attention that I have not yet blogged about meeting up with Helen and Ant last Monday.

I'm sure everyone will be surprised to hear that they are both surprisingly normal, and both look slightly different than they do on cam, but enough similarities for you to recognize them.Ant is bigger in build than he appears on cam, (bigger as in gerneral build not weight) and Helen is prettier in real life. (Benny stop that drooling right now!)

I arrived into London Euston at 11:05am, and after a very short phone conversation, I turned around and wham! Ant was there in front of me with his customary saf coust accent saying "awite mate". Helen, who I had been talking on the phone to, appeared a few seconds late grinning in her inimitable way since we'd both been on the phone and approximately two feet away lol

The day turned out really well, despite none of us having any real plan of what we were going to do, and Helen pointing out the fact that we should have let her plan the day. (she's a teacher, you get used to it ;) ) We ended up having food after wandering around Euston looking for nothing in particular, not knowing where to go, and ended up back at the station where Helen and I ate what was called an "all day breakfast". (Ant had already eaten on the way in)

All I would like to say about the breakfast was that by "all day" I presume they either meant:

a. a day on a far away planet where a day last 5 minutes instead of 24 hours; orb. a day in a developing nation where you have one meal a day

Needless to say it didn't compare to All Day Breakfasts here in the 'ole 'pool.

After eating we went on to discuss our churches and had a very sane normal conversation where we hardly gave Helen a chance to speak. (It wasn't intentional, I just realised that later lol)

It's funny because there are very rarely alot of people with which I can have conversations through the course of a day about such topics as church government, theology, the gospel, having a number two, what having a period is like, favourite writers, old children's tv and psychotic chatters we have met, but Helen and Ant are not two of such people.

Talking with them, it became clear to me that it felt very childish suddenly to snap pictures of them to blog about, so in the end I didn't and opted for taking pictures in the park with Helen instead.

I really enjoyed meeting up with them, and we were all surprisingly normal ;)

In terms of the second part of my title, I have got my work colleague Rachel absolutely addicted to Alias!! I lent her the Alias Season One Boxset, and she has nearly finished the whole boxset already!! I bet it won't be long before she wants Season 2... hehe

I am generally very happy at the moment, though I don't want to go into details too much :-)(you know who you are ;) hehe)

I am wondering what to wear for my X-Factor Audition but think I have decided on combats with a white top. I haven't got a clue what they're looking for and am not very trendy really, so will have to wait and see whether that's the right things to wear!!

Today I got a letter from Liverpool Civic Court saying the date for my bank charges claim has been set for the 10th July!

I have 21 days to send in all details of the charges and my defence.

I'll have to keep my fingers crossed!!

In other news, I had my hospital appointment today with the urologist. After several tests, (and one more today) they've told me my bladder is not emptying properly and on two occasions I've had at least 200ml of urine in my bladder without feeling any urgency to go to the toilet. (I had an ultrasound for them to tell me this)

Apparently this is quite a common symptom of ms, as it normally affects the bladder or bowels, and I've been recommended to start self catherterising. I wouldn't need to keep a catheter in permanently, but I would have to use one as and when required, maybe up to twice a day.

This terrifies me a bit, so no concrete decision was made today, but I've been refferred to another urologist in Southport who will do a more comprehensive test that tells them exactly what is going on with my bladder, and how it is malfunctioning. My doctor reckons that all that will happen will be that this other doctor who's doing the test will refer me back to her again, but she understands why I want the final confirmation of the results before doing anything as drastic as self catherterisation.

I watched a video today, and it made me a bit squeamish, but I'm sure if I inject myself every day, I can cope with a catheter as well... It's just a bit daunting that's all!! I'll wait and see what happens when I have this final test.

Oh well.

In other news, I've been on a day off, and I've been carrying on watching The west Wing season One. I've just got to the season finale and it ends on a cliffhanger where an attempt has been made on the president and his staff, with people shooting, etc!! I hate the way they end seasons on a cliffhanger!! lol

Sunday, May 20, 2007

I'm speaking to the young people tonight after church and so have been preparing this afternoon...

I was typing out the Bible Study sheets that i want them to use, (I want them to do some of the wrok tonight, not just me!!) and was saving a document, when suddenly I heard a pop and my flatscreen monitor went dead!!

Just like that.

I frantically searched around wondering if there'd been a power cut, but I could hear the base unit of the computer still working, so figured it was just the monitor. With a heavy heart I held the power button in on the base unit to restart the computer and see if that would do anything...

After consulting with dad when it still didn't work, I restarted the computer again with a growing sense of dread... Then suddenly realised as I'd reached across for some notes earlier, I'd knocked and unplugged the very thin power cable to the monitor... (!!)

Well, for those of you sad people hanging on my every move... (ok theres only one, and his name's Dudley and he lives in the West Midlands... but anyway I digress!) I did not manage to get through the first round of X Factor!!

However I am not dissapointed it was a very strange experience and I laughed to myself most of the day in the smug knowledge that I wasn't as wierd as some of the saddos that were there lol

I will blog about it in more detail when I can be bothered, but it was interesting, let's just say that!!

I have now killed all my dreams of world domination of the charts and am ready to be bog standard and happy :-)

Last night I emptied half a bottle of a combined oil which has peppermint, eucalyptus, camphor and menthol oil in it, in to a large bowl of steaming hot water.

I proceded to put my head over it and put a towel over to keep the steam in.

I managed approx 5.2 seconds of breathing, as I had put too much oil in and nearly had an asthma attack. (I've never suffered from asthma)I determinedly stuck my head under again and this time managed 5.3 minutes, after which time my face felt as if it was on fire, but I still had a cold.

This morning, after a good night's sleep, and more oil inhalation, (I dropped another half a ton on my pillow) I feel much better, though I still have a cold.

My cold is not so bad now, so I may try some more oil-sniffing tonight, but before that, I will try another method far more pleasant...

People Whos's Blogs I Read:

WISE PEOPLE:

"Jesus did not die at the hands of muggers, rapists, or thugs. He fell into the well-scrubbed hands of deeply religious people, society's most respected members." - Brennan Manning

"All religious and political systems, Right and Left alike, are the work of human beings. Abba's children will not sell their birthright for any mess of pottage, conservative or liberal. They hold fast to their freedom in Christ to live the gospel-uncontaminated by cultural dreck, political flotsam, and the filigreed hypocrisies of bullying religion." - Brennan Manning

"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." ~ Albert Einstein

"To disagree with three-fourths of the British public on all points is one of the first elements of sanity." ~ Oscar Wilde

It is not economical to go to bed early to save the candles if the result is twins. ~Chinese Proverb

"The best things in life are nearest: Breath in your nostrils, light in your eyes,
flowers at your feet, duties at your hand, the path of right just before you.
Then do not grasp at the stars, but do life's plain, common work as it comes,
certain that daily duties and daily bread are the sweetest things in life."
- Robert Louis Stevenson

"Learn as if you were going to live forever. Live as if you were going to die tomorrow."
- Mahatma Gandhi

"There are two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle."
- Albert Einstein

"Great music is that which penetrates the ear with facility and leaves the memory with difficulty. Magical music never leaves the memory." - Sir Thomas Beecham

"To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often." - Winston Churchill

"If you want to know what a man is really like, take notice of how he acts when he loses money." - Simone Weil

"Economy is half the battle of life; it is not so hard to earn money as to spend it well." - C. H. Spurgeon

Love is patient, love is kind.
It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.
It is not rude, it is not self-seeking.
It is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.
Love does not delight in evil, but rejoices with the truth.
It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
Love never fails.
I Corinthians 13:4-8

"Why love if losing hurts so much? We love to know that we are not alone." - C. S. Lewis

"The opposite of love is not hate, it's indifference.
The opposite of art is not ugliness, it's indifference.
The opposite of faith is not heresy, it's indifference.
And the opposite of life is not death, it's indifference."
- Elie Wiesel
(Oct. 1986)

"To be trusted is a greater compliment than to be loved." - George MacDonald

"I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant." - Martin Luther King jr

"It is in deep solitude that I find the gentleness with which I can truly love my brothers. The more solitary I am the more affection I have for themÉ. Solitude and silence teach me to love my brothers for what they are, not for what they say." - Thomas Merton

""There are two kinds of people; those that finish what they start, and so on..." Robert Byrne

"I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us
with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use."
--Galileo Galilei